SPECIFICATION OF BRACHYTHERAPY SOURCE …

AAPM REPORT NO. 21

SPECIFICATION OF BRACHYTHERAPY SOURCE STRENGTH

Published for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine

by the American institute of Physics

AAPM REPORT NO. 21

SPECIFICATION OF BRACHYTHERAPY SOURCE STRENGTH

REPORT OF AAPM Task Group No. 32*

Members Ravinder Nath, Yale University, Chairman Lowell Anderson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute Douglas Jones, Northwest Medical Physics Center Clifton Ling, University of California at San Francisco Robert Loevinger, National Bureau of Standards Jeffrey Williamson, University of Arizona William Hanson, Radiological Physics Center Consultant

*The Task Group is part of the AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee, Faiz M. Khan, Chairman.

June 1987

Published for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine

by the American Institute of Physics

Further copies of this report may be obtained from

Executive Officer American Association of Physicists in Medicine

335 E. 45 Street New York, NY 10017

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 87-72124 International Standard Book Number: 0-88318-545-8

International Standard Serial Number: 0271-7344

Copyright ? 1987 by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by the American Institute of Physics, Inc., 335 East 45 Street, New York, New York 10017

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

I. II. III.

IV. V. VI. VII.

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 U.S. Standards for Brachytherapy Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Source Specification Methods Currently in Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A. Activity of the Radionuclide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 B. Exposure Rate at a Reference Point in Free Space . . . . . . . . 9 C. Equivalent Mass and Apparent Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 D. Air-Kerma Rate at a Reference Point in Free Space...... 10 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Recommended Quantities and Their Relationships............. 14 Practical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Appendix: Information Recommended for Manufacturer's Certificate of Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 19

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the members of the Radiation Therapy

Committee and the Science Council f o r a c a r e f u l r e v i e w o f t h i s document. Many valuable comments from Montague Cohen, David Kubiatowicz and Jerome Meli are also gratefully acknowledged. Finally, we would like to thank Ms. Deanna Jacobs for preparing this manuscript.

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